ESM, J-D runners win league openers

Again situated in the same OHSL Freedom division, the Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse-Minoa cross country teams began the 2009 season on Wednesday with equally smashing results.

In fact, the scores were exactly the same — a perfect 15-50 verdict on the boys and girls sides for the Red Rams against Fowler at Burnet Park, and the Spartans against Cortland on its home Pine Grove course.

J-D saw returning star Bumkoth Jiak speed through Burnet Park in 17 minutes, four seconds, nearly a minute ahead of Dan Driscoll, who was second in 17:52.

Eamon Kissane was third, in 18:46, one second ahead of Max Smith, with John Lenish (19:06) rounding out a top-five sweep. Jack Healy landed in seventh place in 19:13, ahead of a J-D group that included Jacob Gorke (19:25), Dan Frank (20:25) and Alex Wilmot (20:42).

All of the Red Rams’ girls runners stayed together as a group, so as the top five got separated by just two seconds. Rebecca Doss won, in 24:07, with Ameena Dye and Shelby Weinstein sharing second place (24:08), plus Eileen Cody and Katie Pinkes finishign in 24:09.

In the next pack, Grace Bradshaw glided to a time of 24:45, with Paige Morrow seventh in 24:48. Mark Pinkes (25:11) and Avery Share (25:48) were close behind.

While this was going on, ESM’s Meghan Visser made her first race of the season a memorable won, hitting the finish line of the girls race against Cortland in 21:02.